Bible in 90 Days

Remember the Lord’s Provisions

8 “Be careful to observe every command that I’m instructing you today, in order that you may live, increase, and enter and take possession of the land that the Lord promised by an oath to your ancestors. ² Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the desert to humble^[a] and test you in order to make known what was in your heart—whether or not you would keep his commands. ³ He humbled^[b] you, causing you to be hungry, yet he fed you with manna that neither you nor your ancestors had known, in order to teach you that human beings are not to live by food alone—instead human beings are to live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.

⁴ “The clothes you wore^[c] did not wear out, nor did your feet blister during these 40 years. ⁵ Be convinced in your heart that as a father disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you. ⁶ Observe the commands of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing^[d] him, ⁷ because the Lord your God is bringing you to a good land—a land with rivers and deep springs flowing to the valleys and hills. ⁸ It’s a land filled^[e] with wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates. It’s a land filled^[f] with olive oil and honey— ⁹ a land without scarcity. You’ll eat food in it and lack nothing. It’s a land where its rocks are iron and you can dig copper from its mountains.”

Remember the Source of Blessings

¹⁰ “When you have eaten and are satisfied, bless the Lord your God for the good land that he has given you. ¹¹ Be careful! Otherwise, you will forget the Lord your God by failing to keep his commands, ordinances, and statutes that I’m commanding you this day. ¹² Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you have built beautiful houses and lived in them, ¹³ when your cattle and oxen have multiplied, and when your silver and gold have increased, ¹⁴ then you will become arrogant. You’ll neglect the Lord your God, ¹⁵ who brought you out of the land of Egypt—from the house of slavery—and who led you through the vast and dangerous desert—that parched land without water—with its poisonous snakes and scorpions. He brought water out of solid rock for you ¹⁶ and fed you in the desert with manna that neither you nor your ancestors had known to humble and test you so that things may go well with you later. ¹⁷ You may say to yourselves, ‘I have become wealthy by my own strength and by my own ability.’^{[g] 18} But remember the Lord your God, because he is the one who gives you the ability to produce wealth, in order to confirm his covenant that he promised by an oath to your ancestors, as is the case today. ¹⁹ If you neglect the Lord your God, follow other gods, and serve and worship them, I testify to you today that you will certainly be destroyed. ²⁰ Just like the nations whom the Lord destroyed before you, so will you be destroyed, because you did not listen to the voice of the Lord your God.”

When the Lord Fulfills His Promise

9 “Listen, Israel! Today you are about to cross the Jordan to enter and dispossess greater and mightier nations than you, who live in^[h] large cities that are fortified to the sky. ² The Anakim^[i] are strong and tall, and you know them. You’ve heard it said, ‘Who can stand up against the Anakim?’^{[j] 3} But know today that the Lord your God is going ahead of you as a consuming fire. He will destroy and subdue them before you. He will dispossess and destroy them quickly, just as the Lord told you. ⁴ After the Lord has expelled them before you, you are not to say to yourselves, ‘The Lord caused me to enter and possess this land because of my righteousness.’ ⁵ On the contrary, it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you to confirm what the Lord promised by an oath to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ⁶ Know that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving to you this good land to inherit, since you are a stubborn people.”

Israel Broke the Covenant

⁷ “Remember—and don’t ever forget—how you provoked the Lord your God in the desert. From the day that you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebelling against the Lord. ⁸ At Horeb you continually rebelled against the Lord so that he^[k] was angry enough to destroy you. ⁹ Then I went up to the mountain to receive the two stone Tablets of the Covenant that the Lord had established with you. I stayed on the mountain for 40 days and nights without eating food or drinking water. ¹⁰ Then the Lord gave me the two stone tablets on which God inscribed with his own finger all the words that the Lord spoke to you on the mountain from the middle of the fire that day when you were all assembled together. ¹¹ At the end of 40 days and nights, the Lord gave to me the two stone Tablets of the Covenant.

¹² “Then the Lord told me, ‘Get going! Go down from here at once! Your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt. They have turned quickly from the way that I commanded them and have cast an idol for their use.’

¹³ “Then the Lord told me, ‘I have examined this people, and they^[l] are stubborn indeed. ¹⁴ Let me alone! I will destroy them, blot out their name from heaven, and then I’ll make you into a nation that will be mighty and more numerous than they are.’

¹⁵ “So I turned and went down from the mountain while the mountain was on fire. The two Tablets of the Covenant were in both of my hands. ¹⁶ Then I saw how you had really sinned against the Lord your God! You had made for yourselves a calf—a cast idol. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord your God had commanded. ¹⁷ So I grabbed the two tablets and threw them out of my hands, breaking them before your eyes. ¹⁸ I fell down in the Lord’s presence, just as I had the first 40 days and nights. I didn’t eat food or drink water because of your sin. You had sinned by committing this evil in full view of the Lord, thereby provoking him to anger. ¹⁹ I feared the anger and wrath of the Lord against you, because he was irate enough to destroy you. But the Lord also listened to me at that time. ²⁰ It was as had been the case with Aaron—the Lord was very angry and about to destroy him, but I prayed for Aaron at that time. ²¹ So when you made the calf that made you sin, I grabbed it, burned it with fire, crushed it, and ground it thoroughly until it was pulverized to powder. Then I threw the powder into the river that was flowing from the mountain.”

Moses Interceded for Israel

²² “You provoked the Lord again at Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth-hattaavah. ²³ When the Lord sent you from Kadesh-barnea and told you, ‘Go possess the land that I gave you,’ instead you disobeyed what the Lord your God said. You didn’t trust him or listen to his voice. ²⁴ You have been rebelling against the Lord since the day I knew you. ²⁵ I fell down in the Lord’s presence for 40 days and nights, because the Lord said he was ready to destroy you. ²⁶ So I prayed to the Lord and said, ‘Oh Lord my God, don’t destroy your people and your inheritance whom you redeemed by your power.^[m] You brought them out from Egypt in a powerful way. ²⁷ Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Don’t pay attention to the stubbornness, wickedness, and sinfulness of this people. ²⁸ Otherwise, the people of the land from which you brought us will say, “The Lord wasn’t able to bring them into the land that he had promised them. So he brought them out to kill them in the desert because he hated them.” ²⁹ But they are your people and inheritance, whom you brought out by your mighty strength^[n] and awesome power.’”

A Copy of the Ten Commandments

10 “At that time, the Lord told me, ‘Chisel two tablets of stone for yourself just like the first ones, and then come up to me on the mountain. Also make for yourself a wooden chest. ² I’ll write on the tablets what was^[o] on the first tablets that you broke, and then you are to place them into the wooden chest.’ ³ So I made a chest out of acacia wood and chiseled two tablets of stone just like the first ones. Then I went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. ⁴ Then the Lord^[p] inscribed on the tablets what he wrote before—that is, the Ten Commandments that the Lord declared to you on the mountain from the middle of the fire during the day of the assembly. And the Lord gave them to me. ⁵ Then I turned, went down the mountain, and placed the tablets in the chest that I had made. They are there now, just as the Lord commanded me.”

Aaron Dies and the Descendants of Levi are Appointed

⁶ “The Israelis traveled from the wells of the descendants of Jaakan to Moserah. Aaron died and was buried there. His son Eleazar succeeded him as priest. ⁷ From there they moved on to Gudgodah and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with flowing streams. ⁸ At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, to stand in the Lord’s presence, to serve, and to bless his name until this day. ⁹ That is why the descendants of Levi do not have a portion and an inheritance among their relatives. As for^[q] the Lord, he is their inheritance, just as the Lord your God told them. ¹⁰ When I stood on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights as I did the first time, the Lord listened to me once again. The Lord was not willing to destroy you. ¹¹ So the Lord told me, ‘Get up and proceed to lead^[r] the people, so they may enter and take possession of the land that I promised to give their ancestors by an oath.’”

Love the Lord

¹² “Now Israel, what does the Lord your God desire from you? Only this: fear him,^[s] walk in all his ways, love him, serve him^[t] with all your heart and in all your life,^{[u] 13} and observe his^[v] commands and statutes that I’m commanding you today for your own good. ¹⁴ You see, heaven—even the highest heavens—belongs to the Lord, along with the earth and all that is in it, ¹⁵ yet the Lord committed himself to love your ancestors—and did so! He chose you—their descendants after them—from all the nations, as it is^[w] today. ¹⁶ Therefore, circumcise your heart and stop being stubborn. ¹⁷ For the Lord your God is the God of all gods, the Lord of all lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who does not show favoritism or take bribes. ¹⁸ He executes justice for the orphan and the widows, loves the foreigner, and gives them food and clothing.”

Love Others

¹⁹ “You are to love the foreigner, because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. ²⁰ You are to fear the Lord your God and serve him. Cling to him and swear by his name. ²¹ He is the one you are to praise, because he is^[x] your God who carried out those great and awesome things for you that you witnessed. ²² Your ancestors went down to Egypt with 70 people, but the Lord your God has now made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.”

Remember God’s Power

11 “Therefore love the Lord your God and be very careful to keep his injunctions, statutes, ordinances, and commands all the time.^{[y] 2} Keep in mind today that I am not speaking to your children, who neither were aware of nor did they witness the discipline of the Lord your God—that is, his great and far-reaching power, ³ including: the signs and works that he did within Egypt to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and to all his land; ⁴ what he did to the Egyptian army, to its horses, and to its chariots, when he caused the water of the Reed^[z] Sea to engulf them as they pursued you; how the Lord destroyed them, even to this day; ⁵ what he did for you in the desert until you came to this place; ⁶ and what he did to Eliab’s sons Dathan and Abiram, descendants of Reuben, when the ground opened up and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing belonging to them in the full sight^[aa] of Israel. ⁷ Your very own eyes saw all the great things that the Lord did.”

Possessing a Fertile Land

⁸ “Keep all the commands that I’m giving^[ab] you today, so you can be strong enough to enter and possess the land that you are crossing over to inherit ⁹ and so you’ll live long in the land that the Lord your God promised by an oath to give your ancestors and their descendants—a land flowing with milk and honey, ¹⁰ since the land that you are about to enter to inherit isn’t like the land of Egypt that you just left, where you plant a seed and irrigate it with your feet like a vegetable garden. ¹¹ Instead, the land that you are crossing over to inherit is a land of hills and valleys that drinks water supplied by rain from heaven, ¹² a land about which the Lord your God is always concerned, because the eyes of the Lord are continuously on it throughout the entire year.”^[ac]

Delights of a Bountiful Land

¹³ “If you carefully observe the commands that I’m giving you today—that is, to love the Lord your God and serve him with all your heart and soul— ¹⁴ then he^[ad] will send rain on the land in its season (the early and latter rains)^[ae] and you’ll gather grain, new wine, and oil. ¹⁵ He^[af] will provide grass in the fields for your livestock, and you’ll eat and be satisfied. ¹⁶ Be careful! Otherwise, your hearts will deceive you and you will turn away to serve other gods and worship them. ¹⁷ The wrath of God will burn against you so that he will restrain the heavens and it won’t rain. The ground won’t yield its produce and you’ll be swiftly destroyed from the good land that the Lord is about to give you. ¹⁸ Take these commands to heart and keep them in mind, tying them as reminders on your arm and as bands on your forehead. ¹⁹ Teach them to your children, talking about them while sitting in your house, walking on the road, or when you are about to lie down or get up. ²⁰ Also write them upon the doorposts of your house and gates,^{[ag] 21} so that you and your children may live a long time in the land that the Lord promised to give your ancestors—as long as the sky remains above the earth.”

Boundaries of the Land

²² “If you carefully observe all of these commands that I’m giving you to do—to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cling to him— ²³ then the Lord will dispossess all these nations before you and you’ll dispossess nations that are even greater and stronger than you. ²⁴ Every place upon which the soles of your feet tread will be yours as boundaries—from the desert to Lebanon and from the River (that is, from the Euphrates) to the Mediterranean^[ah] Sea. ²⁵ No one will be able to stand against you. The Lord your God will instill terror and fear of you throughout the entire land wherever you go, just as he promised you. ²⁶ Look! I’m about to grant you a blessing and a curse— ²⁷ a blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I’m giving you today, ²⁸ or a curse if you don’t obey the commands of the Lord your God, by turning from the way that I’m commanding you today and following other gods whom you have not known.”

Declaration of the Blessings and Curses

²⁹ “When the Lord brings you to the land that you are about to enter to inherit, repeat the blessings on Mount Gerizim and the curses on Mount Ebal. ³⁰ They’re across the Jordan River to the west in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah opposite Gilgal near the Oak of Moreh, aren’t they? ³¹ For you are about to cross the Jordan River to go in and possess the land that the Lord your God is about to give you to inherit and live in. ³² Be careful to obey all the statutes and ordinances that I’m placing before you today.”

Destroying Altars to False Gods

12 “These are the statutes and ordinances that you must carefully observe in the land that the Lord God of your ancestors has given you to possess every day that you live on the earth. ² Be sure you destroy there all the places where the nations that you’re going to dispossess serve their gods—upon the high mountains and hills and under every leafy tree. ³ Tear down their altars, then cut down their sacred poles^[ai] and burn them. Cut down the carved images of their gods in order to destroy their names from that place.”

Sacrifice at the Central Sanctuary

⁴ “You must not act like this with respect to the Lord your God. ⁵ Instead, you must seek to enter only the place that the Lord your God will choose among your tribes. There he will establish his name and live. ⁶ Bring your burnt offerings there, along with your sacrifices, your tithes, your hand-carried gifts, your offerings in fulfillment of promises, your freely-given offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. ⁷ Then you and your household will eat in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice with all the things you have made by your own effort^[aj] and with which he^[ak] blessed you.

⁸ “You must not act as we have been doing here today, where everyone acts as they see fit, ⁹ since you haven’t arrived yet to your allotted place^[al] that the Lord your God is about to give you. ¹⁰ But after you have crossed the Jordan River and settled in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and after you have received relief from the enemies around you and are living securely, ¹¹ then bring to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling place—where he will establish his name—everything that I’m commanding you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, your hand-carried gifts, and all your best offerings in fulfillment of promises that you pledged to the Lord.

¹² “Rejoice in the presence of the Lord your God—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the descendant of Levi who is in your city—because there is no territorial allotment^[am] for him as you have. ¹³ Be careful not to offer burnt offerings at any location you happen to see^{[an] 14} instead of at the place the Lord will choose in one of the tribal areas. There you may offer burnt offerings, and there you may do everything that I’m commanding you.”

Instructions Pertaining to Food

¹⁵ “You may slaughter and eat as much meat as you desire,^[ao] according to the blessing of the Lord your God, when he provides for you in all your cities.^[ap] Both ritually unqualified and qualified people^[aq] may eat it as they would gazelle and deer. ¹⁶ However, you are not to consume the blood;^[ar] instead, you are to pour it out on the ground as you would water.

¹⁷ “You won’t be allowed to eat your tithe of grain, new wine, or oil, the firstborn of your herd and flock, your voluntary offerings that you pledged, your free-will offerings, or the works of your hands in your own cities. ¹⁸ You’ll eat only in the presence of the Lord your God at the place that he^[as] will choose—you, your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the descendant of Levi who is in your cities.^[at] Rejoice in the presence of the Lord your God in everything you undertake.^{[au] 19} Be careful not to forget the descendant of Levi while you live^[av] in the land. ²⁰ When the Lord your God enlarges your territory—just as he told you—and you say ‘I want to eat meat’ since you desire to eat it,^[aw] you may do so as much as you please.^[ax]

²¹ “If the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish his name is distant from you, then you may slaughter from your herd and your flock what the Lord has provided for you, as he instructed you. You may consume them in your cities^[ay] as much as you please. ²² You may eat them just as you would gazelle and deer. Ritually unqualified and qualified people may eat them. ²³ Only be sure to refrain from eating blood, because blood is the source of^[az] life and you are not to consume blood with the meat. ²⁴ You are not to eat it; instead, you are to pour it on the ground as you would water. ²⁵ You are not to eat it, so that life may go well for you and for your children after you. Then you’ll do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

²⁶ “You may carry and bring only your consecrated gifts and offerings in fulfillment of promises to the place that the Lord will choose. ²⁷ You must offer your burnt offerings—both the meat and the blood—on the altar of the Lord your God. You are to offer the blood by pouring it on the altar of the Lord your God while you consume the meat. ²⁸ Be sure to observe all these words that I’m commanding you, in order that life may go well for you and your children after you forever, for this is good and right in the eyes of the Lord your God.”

Don’t Become Ensnared

²⁹ “When the Lord your God eliminates the nations that you are about to dispossess so you can live in their land, ³⁰ after they have been destroyed in your sight, be careful not to be ensnared as they were. Otherwise, you will seek their gods and ask yourselves, ‘How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.’ ³¹ You must not do the same to the Lord your God, because they practiced in the presence of their gods every sort of abomination that the Lord hates. Moreover, they sacrificed^[ba] their sons and daughters to their gods. ^32 [bb]Now as to everything I’m commanding you, you must be careful to observe it. Don’t add to or subtract from it.”

Dealing with False Prophets

13 ^[bc]“A prophet or a diviner of dreams may arise among you, give you an omen or a miracle ² that takes place, and then he may tell you, ‘Let’s follow other gods (whom you have not known) and let’s serve them.’ Even though the sign or portent comes to pass, ³ you must not listen to the words of that prophet or that diviner of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to make known whether or not you’ll continue to love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul. ⁴ You must follow the Lord your God, fear him, observe his commandments, listen to his voice, serve him, and cling to him. ⁵ That prophet or diviner of dreams must be executed, because he advocated rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you from the land of Egypt and redeemed you from the house of slavery, and because he lured you from the way in which the Lord your God instructed you to live. Purge the evil from among you.”

Dealing with Idolaters

⁶ “Your own blood brother,^[bd] your son, your daughter, your beloved wife, or your friend who is like your soul mate may entice you quietly. He may tell you, ‘Let’s go and serve other gods’ (whom neither you nor your ancestors have known ⁷ from the gods of the people that surround you—whether near or far from you—from one end of the earth to the other). ⁸ You are not to yield to him, listen to him, look with pity on him, show compassion to him, or even cover up for him. ⁹ Instead, you are surely to execute him. You must be the first to put him to death with your own hand, and then the hands of the whole community. ¹⁰ Stone him to death, because he sought to lure you from the Lord your God, who brought you from the land of Egypt, from the land of slavery. ¹¹ Then all Israel will hear about it, be afraid, and won’t do this evil thing again among you.

¹² “You may hear in one of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you to inhabit ¹³ that worthless men^[be] have come from among you to entice those who live in the towns. They may say, ‘Let’s go and serve other gods that you haven’t known.’ ¹⁴ You must thoroughly investigate and inquire if it is true that this detestable thing exists among you. If it is so,^{[bf] 15} then put the inhabitants of the town to death by the sword. Devote everything in it to divine destruction—even its livestock—by the sword. ¹⁶ Gather whatever you’ve taken as spoils at the public square of the town, then burn the town, along with whatever you’ve taken, as an offering to the Lord your God. It will remain a permanent mound of ruins, never to be rebuilt again. ¹⁷ Moreover, you must never take any item from those condemned things, so the Lord may yet relent from his burning anger and extend compassion, have mercy, and cause you to increase in number—as he promised by an oath to your ancestors— ¹⁸ if you obey the voice of the Lord your God by observing all his commands that I’m commanding you today. Do what is right in the sight of the Lord your God.”

Refrain from Cutting Yourselves

14 “You are children of the Lord your God. You must not lacerate yourselves or shave your foreheads on account of the dead, ² because you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord chose to make you his precious possession from among all the nations^[bg] of the earth.”

Refrain from Unclean Food

³ “You must not eat any detestable food. ⁴ These are the animals that you may eat: ox, sheep, goat, ⁵ deer, gazelle, roebuck, wild goat, ibex, antelope, and mountain sheep. ⁶ You may eat every animal with a divided hoof—those with split cloven hooves—that chews the cud. ⁷ However, you must not eat these animals that chew the cud or have a divided hoof: the camel, hare, and rock badger. Even though they chew the cud, their hooves are not divided. Therefore, they are unclean for you. ⁸ And also the pig, because even though its hoof is divided, it does not chew the cud. It is therefore unclean for you. You must not eat their meat or even touch their carcasses.

⁹ “You may choose to eat from these creatures in the water: you may eat anything with fin and scale, ¹⁰ but you may not eat anything without fin and scale, since it is unclean to you.

¹¹ “You may eat all clean birds, ¹² but you must not eat any of these: the eagle, vulture, osprey, ¹³ buzzard, any kind of kite, ¹⁴ any kind of raven, ¹⁵ the ostrich, night hawk, seagull, any kind of falcon, ¹⁶ the little owl, great owl, horned owl, ¹⁷ pelican, carrion vulture, cormorant, ¹⁸ stork, any kind of heron, the hoopoe, and the bat. ¹⁹ Any winged, swarming insect is unclean to you—they are not to be eaten. ²⁰ You may eat every bird that is clean.

²¹ “You must not eat any carcass,^[bh] but you may give it to the alien in your cities^[bi] so he may either consume it or sell it to a foreigner, since you are a people that is holy to the Lord your God.

“You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”

Remember to Tithe

²² “Be sure to tithe annually from everything you plant that yields a harvest in the field. ²³ Then in the presence of the Lord your God, in the place where he’ll choose to establish his name, you may consume the tithe of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the firstborn of your livestock and flock, so that you’ll learn to revere the Lord your God all your life. ²⁴ Now the way may be distant from you, so that you are unable to transport your tithe because you have been blessed by the Lord your God and the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish his name may be distant from you. ²⁵ In that case, convert it into cash, secure the money,^[bj] and then bring it to the place where the Lord will choose. ²⁶ You may spend the money to your heart’s content to buy livestock, flocks, wine, strong drink, and whatever you desire. You and your household may eat there and rejoice in the presence of the Lord your God.”

The Levitical Tithe

²⁷ “But you must not forget the descendant of Levi in your town,^[bk] because there is no tribal allotment^[bl] for him as there is for you. ²⁸ Every third year, bring all the tithes of your produce of that year and store them in your cities ²⁹ so the descendants of Levi—who have no tribal allotment as you do—foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your cities may come, eat, and be satisfied. That way, the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.”^[bm]

The Lord’s Remission

15 “You must cancel your debts at the end of every seventh year. ² This is the way to conduct remission: every creditor must cancel the loan that his friend borrowed, and he must not pressure his friend or brother to repay it,^[bn] because remission to the Lord will be proclaimed. ³ You may exact payment from a foreigner, but cancel whatever your brother owes you. ⁴ Moreover, there will be no poor person among you, for the Lord will surely bless you in the land that he^[bo] is about to give you to possess. ⁵ Only be certain to obey the voice of the Lord your God. Carefully observe all of these commands that I’m commanding you today, ⁶ because the Lord your God will bless you just as he promised. You are to lend to many nations, but not to borrow. Also, you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you.”

Care for the Poor

⁷ “If there should be a poor man among your relatives^[bp] in one of the cities of the land that the Lord your God is about to give you, don’t be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your poor relative.^{[bq] 8} Instead, be sure to open your hand to him and lend him enough to lessen his need. ⁹ Be careful not to think this wicked thought to yourselves: ‘The seventh year, the year of remission, is drawing near…’ and you show ill will^[br] toward your poor relative^[bs] and not give to him. He may then call to the Lord on account of you, and you will be guilty of sin. ¹⁰ You must certainly give to him and not feel regret for doing so.^[bt] Because of this, the Lord your God will bless all your works and everything you do. ¹¹ Since poor people won’t cease to exist in the land, I’m commanding you: Be sure to display generosity^[bu] to your poor and needy relatives in your land.”

Releasing Slaves

¹² “When a fellow Hebrew male or female slave is sold to you and serves you for six years, then in the seventh year you are to set them^[bv] free. ¹³ But when you set them free, don’t send them away empty-handed. ¹⁴ Provide for them liberally from your flock, threshing floor, and wine vat. As the Lord your God has blessed you, so give to them. ¹⁵ Don’t ever forget that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, yet the Lord your God redeemed you. Therefore, I’m giving you these commands today.

¹⁶ “If that slave^[bw] should say to you, ‘I won’t leave you,’ because he loves you and your household, and it was good for him to be with you, ¹⁷ then take an awl and pierce through his earlobe into the door. He then will be your slave forever. You are to do the same for your female slaves. ¹⁸ Don’t view this as a hardship for yourself when you set him free, for he will have served you for six years—twice the time of a paid worker. Then the Lord will bless you in all that you do.”

Offering the Firstborn Male Animals

¹⁹ “Set apart for the Lord your God every firstborn male among your herd and flock. You are not to put the firstborn of your ox to work or shear the firstborn of your flock. ²⁰ Instead, in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your household are to eat them every year at the place the Lord will choose. ²¹ If it has a blemish—lameness, blindness, or any kind of defect—you must not sacrifice it to the Lord your God. ²² In your cities,^[bx] both the unclean and the clean together are to eat it together,^[by] as the gazelle and the deer, ²³ but you are not to eat its blood. Pour it on the ground like water.”

Celebrate the Passover

16 “Observe the month of Abib, keeping the Passover to the Lord your God, because the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt during the night in the month of Abib. ² Then sacrifice sheep and cattle for the Passover to the Lord your God at the place where the Lord your God will choose to establish his name. ³ You must not eat any yeast with it. Instead, for seven days eat bread without yeast—the bread of affliction—because you left the land of Egypt in haste. Remember the day you went out of the land of Egypt for the rest of your lives. ⁴ Yeast is not to be seen in any of your territories for seven days. The meat is not to remain from the evening of the first day until morning.

⁵ “You must not sacrifice the Passover in just any of your cities^[bz] that the Lord your God is about to give you. ⁶ Instead, you are to sacrifice the Passover in the evening at dusk—at the time of day you left Egypt—at the place where your God will choose to establish his name. ⁷ Boil and eat the Passover meal^[ca] at the place that the Lord your God will choose. In the morning you may go back to your tents. ⁸ Eat bread without yeast for six days. Then on the seventh day, hold an assembly to the Lord your God. Don’t do any work.”

Celebrate the Festival of Weeks

⁹ “Count off seven weeks from when the sickle is first put to standing grain. ¹⁰ Then observe the Festival of Weeks in the presence of the Lord your God by giving your tribute and the freewill offering of your hands in proportion to the manner in which the Lord your God blessed you. ¹¹ Rejoice in the presence of the Lord your God with your son, daughter, male and female slaves, the descendant of Levi who is in your city,^[cb] the stranger, the orphan, and the widow among you, at the place where the Lord your God will choose to establish his name. ¹² Remember that you were slaves in Egypt, so keep and observe these statutes.”

Celebrate the Festival of Tents

¹³ “Celebrate the Festival of Tents^[cc] for seven days after you harvest from your threshing floor and your wine press. ¹⁴ Rejoice in your festival—you, your son, your daughter, your male and female slaves, the descendants of Levi, and foreigners, orphans, and widows, who live in your cities.^{[cd] 15} For seven days you are to celebrate in the presence of the Lord your God at the place where the Lord will choose, because the Lord your God will bless you in all your harvest and in everything you do, and your joy will be complete.

¹⁶ “Every male must appear in the presence of the Lord your God three times a year at the place where he will choose: for the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Seven Weeks, and the Festival of Tents.^[ce] He must not appear in the Lord’s presence empty-handed, ¹⁷ but each one must appear^[cf] with his own gift, proportional to the blessing that the Lord your God has given you.”

Pursue Justice

¹⁸ “Appoint judges and civil servants according to your tribes in all your cities^[cg] that the Lord your God is about to give you, so they may judge the people impartially.^{[ch] 19} You must not twist justice, show favoritism, or take bribes, because a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the speech of the righteous. ²⁰ You are to pursue justice—and only justice—so you may live and possess the land that the Lord your God is about to give you.”

Prohibited Practices

²¹ “You are not to set up a sacred pole^[ci] beside the altar of the Lord your God that you will build. ²² Furthermore, you are not to erect for yourselves a sacred stone pillar, because the Lord your God detests these things. 17 ¹ You are not to sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep that has a defect or any flaw in it, because that is detestable to the Lord your God.”

Death to the Idolater

² “You may discover that a man or woman living in one of your cities that the Lord your God is about to give you has done evil in the eyes of the Lord your God by transgressing his covenant. ³ He may be following and serving other gods by bowing down to them—that is, to the sun, the moon, or to any of the heavenly host^[cj] (something I did not command). ⁴ When it is reported to you or you hear of it, you are to investigate it thoroughly. When the truth has been established that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, ⁵ summon the man or the woman who did this evil thing to your city gates, and then stone the man or the woman to death. ⁶ Based on the testimony^[ck] of two or three witnesses, they must surely die, but they are not to die based on the testimony of one person. ⁷ Let the witnesses^[cl] be the first to begin executing them, then the rest of^[cm] the people are to follow. By doing this you will purge evil from among you.”

Deciding Difficult Cases

⁸ “If a case is too difficult for you to decide with respect to bloodshed,^[cn] civil claims,^[co] assault and battery,^[cp] or other matters of dispute within your courts,^[cq] bring^[cr] it to the place that the Lord your God will choose. ⁹ Present the case^[cs] to the Levitical priest or the judge at that time. When you have inquired and they have announced the verdict, ¹⁰ carry out the verdict that was declared to you at the place that the Lord will choose. Carefully observe all of their instructions to you ¹¹ in accordance with what the Law says and in accordance with the verdict that will be handed to you. You must not deviate from the verdict that they declare to you either to the right or to the left. ¹² If a man presumptuously disregards the priest who is serving the Lord your God there, or the judge, that person must die so you will purge evil from Israel. ¹³ Then all the people who hear will be afraid and will not act presumptuously again.”

Duties of the Future King

¹⁴ “When you have come to the land that the Lord your God is about to give you, and you have taken possession of it and have settled in it, then you will say, ‘I will appoint a king over me like all the nations around me.’ ¹⁵ You will certainly set a king over you, whom the Lord your God will choose from among your relatives, but you must not place a foreign king over you who is not from your relatives. ¹⁶ He must not amass horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt to obtain more horses, because the Lord said you must never return that way again. ¹⁷ Also, he must not accumulate wives for himself (otherwise, his affection will become diverted), nor accumulate for himself excessive quantities of^[ct] silver and gold. ¹⁸ When he occupies his royal throne, he must make a copy of this Law for himself from a scroll used by the Levitical priests. ¹⁹ It is to remain with him the rest of his life so he may learn to fear the Lord his God and observe all the words of this Law and these statutes, in order to fulfill them. ²⁰ He is not to exalt himself over his relatives, nor turn aside from the commandment—neither to the right nor to the left—so that he and his sons may reign long in Israel.”

Provision for the Descendants of Levi

18 “The Levitical priests—the whole tribe of Levi—will not have a portion or an inheritance within Israel. Instead, they will eat the burnt offerings of the Lord, because that is their inheritance. ² But they will not have an inheritance among their relatives, because the Lord alone is their inheritance—as he promised them.”

Provision for the Priests

³ “A portion of what the people offer in sacrifice, whether cattle or sheep, is to be due the priests. They must set aside the shoulder, jowls, and stomach for the priest. ⁴ Give them the first gatherings of your grain, wine, and oil, as well as wool from the shearing of your flock. ⁵ For the Lord your God has chosen them and their descendants^[cu] from among your tribes to stand and serve in the name of the Lord all their lives.”^[cv]

Provision for the Itinerant Levite

⁶ “Any descendant of Levi who wishes to do so may come from any city or part of Israel where he resides to the place that the Lord will choose. ⁷ There he may serve in the name of the Lord his God. Like his fellow descendants of Levi who stand there in the Lord’s presence, ⁸ he may eat the same share as they do regardless of what he receives from his ancestral estate.”

Detestable Practices

⁹ “When you enter the land that the Lord your God is about to give you, don’t learn the detestable practices of those nations there. ¹⁰ There must never be found among you anyone who sacrifices^[cw] his son or daughter in fire, practices divination, interprets omens, practices sorcery, ¹¹ casts spells, or who is a medium, an occultist, or a necromancer. ¹² Whoever practices these things is detestable to the Lord, and the Lord your God will expel them before you because of these things. ¹³ You must be completely faithful to the Lord your God, ¹⁴ because those nations that you are about to dispossess listen to those who practice witchcraft and divination. But the Lord does not allow you to act this way.”

Discerning the True Prophet

¹⁵ “The Lord your God will raise up a prophet like me for you from among your relatives. You must listen to him, ¹⁶ because this is what you asked from the Lord your God at Horeb when you were assembled together: ‘Don’t let us^[cx] hear the voice of the Lord our God again, or even see this great fire—otherwise, we^[cy] will die.’

¹⁷ “Then the Lord told me: ‘What they have suggested is good. ¹⁸ I will raise up a prophet like you from among their relatives, and I will place my words in his mouth so that he may expound everything that I have commanded to them. ¹⁹ But if someone will not listen to those words that the prophet^[cz] speaks in my name, I will hold him accountable. ²⁰ Even then, if the prophet speaks presumptuously in my name, which I didn’t authorize him to speak, or if he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die.’ ²¹ Now you may ask yourselves, ‘How will we be able to discern that the Lord has not spoken?’ ²² Whenever a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord and the oracle does not come about or the word is not fulfilled, then the Lord has not spoken it. The prophet will have spoken presumptuously, so you need not fear him.”

Cities of Refuge

19 “When the Lord your God destroys those nations whose lands he^[da] is about to give you, you must dispossess them and live in their cities and houses. ² You must reserve^[db] three cities within the land that the Lord your God is about to give you to possess. ³ Build roads throughout the land that the Lord your God is providing as an inheritance, and then divide it into three districts so that any killer may flee there.

⁴ “Now this is the situation for any killer who flees there to live: suppose he strikes his friend unwittingly, not having hated him previously. ⁵ For instance,^[dc] he may have accompanied his friend to go to a forest to cut trees. Then he swung his axe to cut some wood, but the ax head flew off the handle^[dd] and hit^[de] his friend, so that he died. The killer^[df] may flee to one of these cities to live. ⁶ Since the distance may be great, the angry avenger may overtake the killer he is pursuing and kill him, in which case there will be no justice in his death, because he did not hate his friend^[dg] previously. ⁷ Therefore I am commanding you to reserve^[dh] three cities.”

Increase the Cities of Refuge

⁸ “Now if the Lord enlarges your territories just as he promised your ancestors and gives you all the land that he promised,^{[di] 9} and if you are careful to observe all these commands that I am commanding you today—to love the Lord your God and to walk daily in his ways—then add three more cities in addition to these three cities. ¹⁰ You must not shed innocent blood on your land that the Lord your God is about to give you as an inheritance. Otherwise, you’ll be guilty of murder.”

Refuse Cold-Blooded Murderers

¹¹ “However, if a person hates his neighbor, lies in wait for him, rises up against him, and attacks him so that he dies, and then he flees to one of those cities, ¹² then the elders of his own city are to send for him, remove him from there, and deliver him to the related avenger for execution. ¹³ Have no pity on him, but totally purge the shedding of innocent blood from Israel so that life may go well with you.”

Boundary Markers

¹⁴ “When you inherit the land that the Lord your God is about to give you, don’t move your neighbor’s boundary marker from where it was placed long ago.”

Laws about Witnesses

¹⁵ “The testimony of one person alone is not to suffice to convict anyone of any iniquity, sin, or guilt. But the matter will stand on the testimony of two or three witnesses. ¹⁶ When a malicious witness takes the stand^[dj] against a man and accuses him, ¹⁷ then both must stand with their dispute in the Lord’s presence, the priests, and the judges at that time. ¹⁸ The judges will investigate thoroughly. If the false witness lies in testifying against his relative, ¹⁹ do to him just as he intended to do to his relative. By doing this you will purge evil from your midst. ²⁰ When others hear of this, they will be afraid and will not do such an evil deed again in your midst. ²¹ Your eyes must not show pity—life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.”

Rules of War

20 “When you go to war against your enemies and observe more horses, chariots, and soldiers^[dk] than you have, don’t be afraid of them, for the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt is with you. ² As you draw near for battle, let the priest approach and speak to the army.^{[dl] 3} He will say to them, ‘Listen, Israel! You’re about to go into battle today against your enemies. Don’t be faint-hearted. Don’t be afraid, don’t panic, and don’t be terrified to face them. ⁴ For the Lord your God will be with you, fighting on your behalf against your enemies in order to grant you victory.’

⁵ “Furthermore, let the officials ask the army, ‘Is there a man here^[dm] who has built a new house but has not yet dedicated it? Let him go back home. Otherwise, he may die in battle and another man dedicate it. ⁶ And is there a man here^[dn] who has planted a vineyard and not yet benefited from it? Let him go home. Otherwise, he may die in battle and another man use it. ⁷ And is there a man here^[do] who is engaged to a woman and has not yet married her? Let him go back home. Otherwise, he may die in battle and another man marry her.’

⁸ “Let the officials also speak to the army, ‘Is there a man here^[dp] who is afraid and faint-hearted? Let him go back home. Otherwise, he may demoralize his fellow soldier.’^[dq]

⁹ “When the officials have finished speaking to the army, they must appoint officers to lead the troops.”

Rules of Peace

¹⁰ “When you approach a city to wage war against it, extend terms of peace. ¹¹ If it agrees to peace and welcomes you, then all the people found in it will serve you as forced laborers. ¹² But if they refuse to make peace with you and instead choose war, then attack it. ¹³ The Lord your God will deliver it into your control, and you must execute every male. ¹⁴ The women, children, all the livestock in the city, and all of the spoil and plunder will belong to you. Appropriate the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God will give you. ¹⁵ Do this to all the cities that are distant from you—that is, to those cities that are not in neighboring nations.”

Destruction of the Canaanites

¹⁶ “You are not to leave even one person alive in the cities of these nations that the Lord your God is about to give you as an inheritance. ¹⁷ You must completely destroy the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, just as the Lord your God commanded you, ¹⁸ so they won’t teach you to do all the detestable things that they do for their gods. If you do what they teach you, you will sin against the Lord your God.”

Preservation of Fruit Trees

¹⁹ “When you attack a city and have to fight against it for many days, don’t destroy its trees by cutting them down with an ax. You may eat from them, but you must not cut them down. Are the trees of the field human beings, that you would come and attack them? ²⁰ However, you may cut down the trees whose fruit^[dr] you know isn’t edible, in order to build siege works against the city that waged war with you, until it falls.”

Atonement for Unsolved Murder

21 “If a murder victim is found fallen in the open country of the land that the Lord your God is about to give you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, ² then let your elders and judges go out and measure the distance from the dead body to the neighboring cities. ³ Then the elders of the city nearest the body are to take a heifer that hasn’t been put to work or hasn’t pulled a yoke ⁴ and^[ds] are to lead the heifer to a flowing stream in a valley that has never been tilled or planted. They are to break the heifer’s neck there. ⁵ Then the priests of the descendants of Levi are to step forward, because the Lord your God chose them to serve and pronounce blessings in his name.^[dt] Every case of dispute and assault is to be subject to their ruling. ⁶ All the elders of the city nearest the dead body are to wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, ⁷ and they are to make this declaration: ‘Our hands didn’t shed this blood, nor were we witnesses to the crime. ⁸ Make atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, Lord, and don’t charge the blood of an innocent man against them.’^[du] Then the blood that has been shed will be atoned for. ⁹ This is how you will remove the guilt of innocent blood from among you, for you must do what is right in the sight of the Lord.”

Marriage to a War Captive

¹⁰ “If you go to battle against your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your control, you may take some prisoners captive. ¹¹ If you see among the prisoners a beautiful woman and you desire her, then you may take her as your wife. ¹² Bring her to your house, but shave her head and trim her nails. ¹³ Remove her prisoner’s clothing and let her remain for a month in your house, mourning her parents. After that, you may^[dv] become her husband and she is to become your wife. ¹⁴ If you aren’t pleased with her and you send her away, you must not sell her for money or mistreat her, since you will have dishonored her.”

Preferential Treatment Prohibited

¹⁵ “If a man has two wives where one is loved but the other is unloved, and both^[dw] of them bear him sons, but the firstborn is the son of the unloved wife, ¹⁶ then when he bequeaths his possessions to his sons, he must not give preference to the firstborn of the beloved wife over the firstborn of the unloved wife. ¹⁷ Instead, he must acknowledge the firstborn of the unloved wife by giving him double of everything he owns, because he is really the first fruit of his father’s^[dx] strength. The right of the firstborn belongs to him.”

Death to a Rebellious Son

¹⁸ “If a man has a stubborn son who does not obey his parents,^[dy] and although they try to discipline him, he still refuses to pay attention to them, ¹⁹ then his parents^[dz] are to seize him and bring him before the elders at the gate of his city. ²⁰ Then they are to declare to the elders of their city: ‘Our son is stubborn and rebellious. He does not obey us. He lives wildly and is a drunkard.’ ²¹ Then all the men of his city are to stone him with boulders so that he dies. This is how you will remove this evil from among you. Then all Israel will hear of it and will be afraid.”

Burial of the Executed

²² “If a man is guilty of a capital offense, is executed, and then is impaled on a tree, ²³ his body must not remain overnight on the tree. You must bury him that same day, because cursed of God is the one who has been hanged on a tree. Don’t defile your land that the Lord is about to give you as your inheritance.”

Hospitality to Neighbors

22 “When you see the ox or sheep of your fellow countryman^[ea] straying, don’t go away and leave it. Instead, be sure to return it to him.^{[eb] 2} If your fellow countryman doesn’t live near you or you don’t know who he is, bring the animal^[ec] to your house and let it remain with you until he^[ed] claims it. Then return it to him. ³ Do the same for his donkey, his garment, and for anything lost that belongs to your fellow countryman. When you find it, you must not ignore it. ⁴ When you see the donkey or the ox of your fellow countryman fallen on the road, don’t ignore it. Instead be sure to help it get up.”

Miscellaneous Laws

⁵ “A woman is not to wear what is appropriate to a man, nor is a man to put on a woman’s garment, because anyone who does this is detestable to the Lord your God.

⁶ “When you encounter a bird’s nest along the road, whether in a tree or on the ground, and the mother bird is sitting on its chicks^[ee] or eggs, don’t take the mother along with its young.^{[ef] 7} You may take the young, but be sure to release the mother, so that life will go well for you and that you may have a long life.

⁸ “When you build a new house, install a parapet along your roof so that if someone falls from the roof, you won’t bring guilt of bloodshed on your house.”

Principles of Distinction

⁹ “Don’t plant two kinds of seeds in your vineyard. Otherwise, the entire crop will have to be forfeited, both the seed that you have sown and the produce from it.

¹⁰ “Don’t plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.

¹¹ “Don’t wear material made from wool and linen mixed together.

¹² “Sew tassels for yourself on the four corners of the garment with which you cover yourself.”

Integrity in Marriage

¹³ “Suppose a man marries a wife, but after having sexual relations with her, he despises her, ¹⁴ invents charges against her, and defames her by saying, ‘I have married this woman, but when I had sexual relations with her I found that she wasn’t a virgin.’ ¹⁵ Then the father of the young lady, along with her mother, is to bring evidence of the young lady’s virginity to the elders at the gate. ¹⁶ The father of the young lady is to then say to the elders: ‘I have given my daughter to this man as a wife, but he despises her. ¹⁷ Now look, he has invented charges against her by saying, “I haven’t found your daughter to be a virgin.” But here is the proof of my daughter’s virginity.’ Then they are to spread the cloth before the elders of the city. ¹⁸ The elders of that city will then take the man, punish him, ¹⁹ fine him 100 shekels of silver, and then give them to the young lady’s father, because he defamed a virgin of Israel. She is to remain his wife and he can’t divorce her as long as he lives. ²⁰ But if this charge is true, and the evidence of the young lady’s virginity wasn’t found, ²¹ they are to bring her to the door of her father’s house. Then the men of the city are to stone her with boulders until she dies for doing a detestable thing in Israel—acting like a prostitute while in her father’s house. By doing this, you will remove this evil from among you.

²² “If a man is caught having sexual relations with a married woman, then both of them must die—the man who had sex with the woman and the woman herself—so that this evil will be removed from Israel.

²³ “If a man meets a young virgin lady in the city who is engaged to be married and has sexual relations with her, ²⁴ then the two must be brought to the city gate and there they must be stoned to death—the girl because she was in a city but did not cry out for help, and the man who abused a woman who was engaged to another man. By doing this you are to remove this evil from among you.

²⁵ “If a man meets a girl in the country who is engaged to be married and then rapes^[eg] her, the man alone—the one who had sexual relations with her—must die. ²⁶ As for the young lady, don’t do anything to her. The young lady did nothing worthy of death. This case is similar to when a man attacks his countryman and kills him. ²⁷ Since he found her in the country, the engaged girl may have cried out, but there was no one to rescue her.

²⁸ “However, if a man meets a girl who isn’t engaged to be married, and he seizes her, rapes her, and is later found out, ²⁹ then the man who raped her must give 50 shekels of silver to the girl’s father. Furthermore, he must marry her. Because he violated her, he is to not divorce her as long as he lives.

^30 [eh]“A man must not marry his father’s wife, so that he will not dishonor his father’s memory.”^[ei]

Qualifications for Assembling

23 ^[ej]“No man whose testicles have been crushed^[ek] or whose penis has been cut off may participate in the assembly of the Lord. ² Furthermore, no one born due to an illicit sexual relationship may participate in the assembly of the Lord, including his descendants to the tenth generation. ³ No Ammonite or Moabite may participate in the assembly of the Lord, and none of their descendants is to be admitted to the assembly of the Lord, to the tenth generation, ⁴ because they didn’t come to meet you with food and water along the way as you were coming out of Egypt. Instead, they hired Beor’s son Balaam from Pethor in Aram-naharaim^[el] to curse you. ⁵ However, the Lord your God didn’t listen to Balaam. The Lord your God turned Balaam’s^[em] curse into a blessing, because the Lord your God loves you. ⁶ Don’t seek a peace treaty with them as long as you live. ⁷ Don’t detest Edomites, since they are related to you. Don’t detest Egyptians, either, because you were strangers in their land. ⁸ Their grandchildren^[en] may participate in the assembly of the Lord.”

Community Sanitation

⁹ “When you are encamped for battle against your enemies, be on guard against every form of impropriety. ¹⁰ If someone among you becomes unclean due to nocturnal emissions, he must leave the camp and stay outside. ¹¹ As evening approaches, he must wash himself with water. Then at sunset, he may return to the camp.